Author: Elizabeth Blessing
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USDA modified Missouri’s food stamp purchase ban to February 15, 2027, after approving the state’s first request on December 10, 2025
Missouri’s plan to bar candy, prepared desserts and certain unhealthy beverages from food stamp purchases now has a new start line: February 15, 2027. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA) recorded the change in a Federal Register notice published September 15, 2026, nine months after it first approved the state’s request…
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Nebraska asked USDA on September 1 for a December 1 soda ban, after a court vacated its first waiver
Soda is still allowed in Nebraska’s SNAP program, and nothing USDA has published says that will change on December 1. A federal court wiped out the state’s first soda-and-energy-drink waiver on June 22, 2026. Nebraska responded on September 1 with a new request, and USDA’s waiver page, updated October 2, says only “We are working…
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A student under 22 can keep Supplemental Security Income while earning up to $9,730 in a year
The Social Security Administration sets aside a large block of a young student’s paycheck when it decides how much Supplemental Security Income to pay. Under the student earned income exclusion, a student under age 22 can have earnings of up to $2,410 per month, to a maximum of $9,730 per year, left out of the…
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An earlier round of pork overcharge claims against JBS and Smithfield closed on April 22, and only the Tyson group’s window is still open
One pork price-fixing case has two claim windows, and they sit on opposite sides of today’s date. The administrator’s document page lists the JBS and Smithfield deadline as passed on April 22, 2026. The second round, covering Tyson, Clemens, Seaboard Foods, Hormel, Triumph Foods and Agri Stats, remains open, with claims due by October 29,…
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The home-commission settlement sets different claim periods by defendant and state, with the earliest reaching back to January 25, 2006 in Puerto Rico
Anyone who bought a home through a multiple listing service and paid a commission may sit inside the $120,334,500 homebuyer antitrust settlement, but the answer depends on two things: which brokerage was involved and which state the home was in. The settlement administrator’s FAQ lists separate class periods for the defendants, and they start on…
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The IRS has pushed deadlines for filers in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza all the way to September 30, 2027
Taxpayers whose homes or businesses sit in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza have until September 30, 2027 to file federal returns, pay federal taxes and handle other time-sensitive tax actions. The Internal Revenue Service announced the postponement on September 30, 2026, as release IR-2026-116, with the details set out in Notice 2026-63. It is…
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Indiana’s storm filers get until February 1 to file, but the IRS says the payments that were due on April 15 are not covered
The IRS has pushed the federal tax deadline for Indiana storm victims to February 1, 2027, and the same release spells out a limit that is easy to miss: the payments that were due on April 15, 2026 are not covered. Filing relief and payment relief are not the same thing here, and the agency…
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A Michigan mother is accused of spending $30,000 of the Supplemental Security Income paid for her own disabled son
To keep receiving her son’s disability benefits after he left her custody, a Michigan mother lied to the Social Security Administration about where he lived, and even had another person impersonate him during an SSA review, according to the Justice Department. She is Keshaune Pace, also known as Keshaune Jenkins, and the department says she…
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The largest of 17 new Social Security theft cases accuses an Ohio woman of taking $170,166 in benefits
Seventeen people now face federal charges in a month-long Justice Department sweep of Social Security benefit theft, and the biggest case on the list belongs to Lizbeth A. Reinhard of the Northern District of Ohio, whose entry carries an intended loss of $170,166. The department announced the cases on September 29, 2026. Every one of…
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Food stamps exempt seven groups from the three-month time limit, among them veterans, people without housing, and anyone with someone under 18 in the household
Seven groups of adults are excused from SNAP’s three-month time limit, according to the USDA’s page on SNAP work requirements, and the list is shorter and more specific than many summaries suggest. Veterans are on it. So are people experiencing homelessness, and so is any adult whose SNAP household includes someone under 18. The time…